AT&T, now the nation's second largest cellular network after Verizon, today announced plans to upgrade its 3G networks nationwide. The company provides service to over 78.2 million customers in the U.S.

Most of the company's network is currently based on the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, built upon a 3G UMTS network. Currently, AT&T uses HSPA speeds of 1.8 or 3.6 Mbit/s (downlink and uplink), but with the upgrade it will be capable of 7.2 Mbit/s (uplink and downlink).

Starting in 2010, the company also plans on rolling out 4G LTE trial deployments. By 2011 to 2012, it expects this technology to be standard. In the meantime, AT&T plans to provide a boost to its mobile broadband offerings by doubling the wireless spectrum it dedicates to 3G in most metropolitan areas. It also plans on adding thousands of new cell site backhaul connections to help support the broadband network.

The investments will come as part of the $17B to $18B USD that the company plans on spending on new capital development in 2009.

AT&T has seen its subscriber numbers soar with the addition of the chic Apple iPhone to its fold. However, it has also suffered from service problems, due to, among other factors, the increased use of mobile video from smartphones, chiefly the iPhone. With a new iPhone reportedly set to launch this summer, it’s hoping to have its network rise to the occasion and be able to provide enough bandwidth to adequately support new subscribers.

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I agree....."more bandwidth" is such a farce when they don't modify the cap.

My Comcast went from 6Mb/s down, 1Mb/s up to something around 18Mb/s down, 6Mb/s up... but they didn't change the 250GB/month cap, nor have they yet to provide a method for their customers to know how much of the monthly allowance has been used....

of course, as they charge more for business class plan (around $100/mo I think?)This is a little funny, particularly for large corporations, as I think typically employees should not watch too much Youtube or Hulu using their corporate mobile devices, nor should they download many MP3, for non-work-related purposes :p

True. When you have no limits in the use of technology you tend to use and enjoy it. But when there's artificial caps on use, the technology is of less value and interest. This is what AT&T is failing to recognize. By placing plans and limits, intended to generate more income for the company, they are in-turn making their technology more difficult for consumers to use. I hope that they try to do more than just upgrade their bandwidth; for speed alone will not attract customers. You have to first satisfy the terms of use before they can draw customers back. I'm an AT&T Wireless customer and do plan to switch to another carrier if they do not improve their terms of use and fees this year.

Download caps have a positive side effect as well, if you have a network where back haul isn't up to scratch, or suffers from allot of congestion issues, placing download caps will relieve that stress, providing a higher quality connection for everyone till the network gets upgraded.

Wireless 3G networks is a shared medium, the more people on it and downloading the worst it's performance becomes.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Wireless companies are only permitted to own 'so-much' spectrum in any market. The quantity of spectrum that the provider can legally use is the limiting value . If they only own 30mhz of spectrum for data that means that each tower (actually, pair of towers for CDMA2000/WCDMA) is limited to providing only that much transfer ability at any given time for all users communicating with that tower.Wireless will never be able to compete with wired. FiOS and Doc3 can play with a ghz or more potentially, and that can be enhanced by adding more switches to service fewer doors. Wireless is measured in mhz and is limited by the tower.